The Abduction of the Poppy
by Tokahlia
Summary: The Poppy has disappeared and Persephone is having trouble keeping things in order. A trio of mismatched companions are called to keep the world from certain doom...again.
1. A new sister, a new weapon, and the usua

**The Abduction of the Poppy**

Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfiction by Tohkalia and Miss-Li-ding

DISCLAIMER: We don't own PJO. We're too poor.

Chapter 1 - A new sister, a new weapon, and the usual mouth diarrhoea

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, it wasn't boiling, the wind was down and yet Vivian was still as sour as ever. Nathan sighed and leaned his head against the window of the taxi cab that he had been forced to share with her. They were off to another summer at their favourite summer camp, and she was already completely peeved. It all started this morning. The argument was still ringing through his ears.

"Dad, where are all my law books?" Viv had demanded.

"Oh, those old books. They had silverfish all through them. I gave them to the book society on Friday."

"You WHAT? I was going to read those while I was at camp!"

"You couldn't have read those old books, there would hardly be anything to read. They were absolutely infested."

Back in the cab, Nathan concluded that the reason Viv was so pissed was because she hadn't had the chance to get payback at their father. About thirty minutes from this episode they were packed up into the cab and off to their summer camp.  
>From the look on her face he concluded that she was still thinking up punishments. Nathan sighed and thought of his dad. Poor man. Viv's revenge schemes got worse with the length of time she had to plan them. She was probably planning something that would be equal to his abuse but at the same time horrible.<p>

Almost sensing that he was looking at her, Viv turned and glared at him.

"What? I didn't take away your precious law books." Whoops, wrong thing to say.

He was about to reword his phrasing when the cab came to a halt.  
>"You sure this is the place?" asked the cab driver.<p>

Viv, instantly turned into the image of politeness replied, "I certainly am." before giving the cab driver his sum in cash.

When he had been paid, both Nathan and Viv hopped out of the taxi and opened the back of the car, Nathan taking out his backpack and Vivian, her duffel bag. They closed the boot of the car before walking to the side of the road, waiting for the bright yellow car to disappear before they went towards their destination, Camp Half-Blood.

As soon as he entered under the archway, Nathan veered away from Vivian and went to his own cabin, number 19. As custom dictated, he touched the horseshoe that was nailed into the top of the door frame before walking into the familiar surroundings. He felt around for a lightswitch to his right and turned them on. Instantly the cabin erupted into bright lights. It looked like a casino, with neon lighting and heaps of games. Even the green blankets that covered each bed looked like the green velvet that covered pool tables.

He was about to dump his bag onto his usual bunk when he realised that there was someone in it. Nathan walked up to the sleeping being and looked at who dared to steal his bed. It was a girl, someone he hadn't seen around before. She was young, probably ten, maybe eleven. Maybe a wayward daughter of Hypnos? No other would be asleep on such a nice day.

He poked her in the arm. No response. Another poke. A grumble of discontent before the girl opened her eyes, then, startled, sat up.

"Umm... Yes?" She was wearing a bright orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt that was way to baggy for her. With her right hand she started rubbing away sleep in her eye.

"Sorry to be annoying but you're in my spot."

The girl stopped rubbing her eyes before her hands started to tremble. She burst into tears. "I've been through so much in this horrid country after my father died and now I'm being kicked out of my only bed!" Nathan could detect a strong British accent from her great sobs and felt sorry for her.

"Hey, it's no big deal, I'll just take this bed... Please don't cry..." Concerning female emotions, Nathan wasn't the best handler. In fact, he preferred not to handle them at all. Nathan dumped his bag onto a less favourable bed and started pulling out his sleeping bag when he realised that the girl was chuckling to herself. He stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to her.

"You did _not _just 'luck' to freaking find my weakness did you?" The girl, who had become dry-eyed again immediately started to tear up.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know this word-"

"Bull. Crap." Nathan crossed his arms defiantly until the girl gave a defeated sigh.

"Ok, so I did 'luck' my way into finding your weakness, what ever 'luck' is. It's not even a verb idiot. I just got 'claimed' a couple of days ago. You have no idea what I've been through." She sniffed indigently and swung her legs off the bed.

"Uh, we all know what that's like. Get over it." Nathan sighed. It was going to be fruitless to try and argue with her. "So I guess you're my new sister?"

The girl snorted. "Sister? Ew. Don't get yourself flattered."

"Who is your godly parent?" he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"I dunno, someone called Tai-chi or something..."

"One, it's Tyche. Two, she's my mom too so, that makes us siblings." He said the second point slowly, as if she couldn't understand him. "I'm Nathan Archer by the way. We also have Patricia Jacobs and Oliver Brent who aren't here at the moment. Oliver might not come this year, he's in college."

"What do you mean 'have'? I'm Eliza by the way."

"They're our siblings too. I also have a half sister, Vivian Archer, but trust me. She, and the rest of her cabin are our bane. You'd be much better off being friends with someone from Hecate's cabin or Ares. Now those are real fun people."

Before Eliza had a chance to retort, a horn blasted from the centre of camp. "What was that?" Eliza asked, scrambling to her feet and looking around with fear.

"It means that capture the flag starts in half an hour. You probably don't have any armour." The girl shook her head. "Fine then, I guess I'll take you to the armour shed."

"Armour? Aren't we just playing capture the flag?"

"We are. Exactly why we need armour. Come on," Nathan walked to the door. "we've got some fitting to do."

* * *

><p>Vivian was just about to start struggling through reading one of the cabin's copies of United States Supreme Court Records, Annotated Volume 18 when the conch horn for capture the flag sounded.<p>

"Come on!" She shouted, memorising her page number before slamming the book closed. Bloody hell. Chiron just _had _to blow the conch at that exact moment, didn't he? And as much as she hated reading (stupid dyslexia), she hated randomly (maybe not so randomly, especially if they were on the Athena cabin's side again) running around and whapping people with her sword. Lame, lame, lame... She muttered the last words out loud.

Her brother and head of the cabin, Jacob, sympathised with her. "Stupid game, I mean, we were on the winning side last time, there isn't much reason for us to fight."

Vivian nodded but slowly got to her feet. "The only ones who sit out are Aphrodite-spawn. We must not sink to their level." She looked at Jacob as she said this. He blushed.

"Hey, Cat is different-"

"That's what they all say. Come on lover-boy." To the rest of the cabin she proclaimed, "We're on Ares', Hephaestus', Dionysus', Thanatos', Poseidon's, Demeter's, Iris' and Apollo's side tonight. And sadly, Aphrodite's."  
>The whole cabin simultaneously rolled their eyes. "Hopefully the prospect of us beating them up will encourage them to participate today."<p>

"Or discourage them." said another of the cabin.

"Let's go team Nemesis!" called Jacob. The cabin cheered heartily. Viv scowled. Of course he got the credit for pumping them up.

The cabins on their side for capture the flag gathered around the battle-plan that Ares had drawn up. "Oi, listen up!" bellowed the Ares cabin leader. "Poseidon cabin!" He pointed at a small group of teenagers, about five of them. "You guys spread out along the stream. Guard the edges well against blue-teamers that might sneak in around the sides."

They nodded and muttered amongst themselves. The Ares leader continued, "Apollo will line up at the back of the defense group and shoot."  
>There was a muffled 'yes!' from their general direction. "Switch to swords if you see anyone getting close. The main attack teams will be these following people." He read out a list of names. "Divide yourself into two groups. There must be an equal number of Ares and Hephaestus in each team, and at least two Nyx. Nemesis-"<p>

At this Viv and everyone else in Nemesis straightened up, "will lead the defense, which is the rest of you."

Viv shrugged. Not too bad a position, it had certain qualities to it. Though she still thought that this whole thing was lame. The rest of the Nemesis cabin gave muffled agreeing sounds.

The Ares leader continued "All right then, let's go throttle some blue-team!" Everyone cheered at this and, as it was a certain custom, Viv cheered too. "Let's go meet the other team, when I blow the trumpet," he held up said trumpet that came with an added bonus of transforming into a halberd every time he pushed a little button on its side. "move into your positions."

Viv mentally groaned. The blonde Aphrodite-spawn was still nattering at her. "...and, like, it was SO COOL! I wanted the Hephaestus cabin to make me one, but they were like, sorry, we can't, like, give it to you, for, like, free, you have to pay us. So I was like- hey, before I forget, why's your sword, like, a ruler?"

Ugh. Just because they were on the same team for capture the flag didn't mean that girl could spew word vomit all over her. Viv shifted her grip on the shield before it registered that the Aphrodite-spawn (Zara? Sarah?) had asked her a question. She shrugged and looked at her sword, a celestial bronze one. It was plain and unadorned apart from her initials and scales, a symbol of Nemesis, etched on the ebony pommel, and the ruler-like markings on the blade.

"Symbolic, I guess? You know how Nemesis is sorta the goddess of proportion and stuff..." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chiron lifting the conch to his lips and Sara preparing for another question.

Chiron blew the conch. Saved! Viv lifted her sword and braced herself for the impact of the blues. Sara shrieked and ran to the relative safety of her brothers and sisters.

_Block, strike, parry, prise de fer, parry, double feint, strike, disengage, twist..._Viv's opponent's sword clattered to the ground and she smacked him in the head with her pommel. She looked around. Jacob was fighting an Athena girl and losing. Viv crept up behind her. The Athena girl saw, and tried to retreat, but she fell with a swift blow to the temple.

"You've neglected training haven't you?" she snorted, annoyed that her brother had allowed himself to fall in his skill.

"Hey, I don't have a dad who can afford to give me sabre lessons every week." Jacob replied before running off to go and defend against some other blue-teamers. Viv was about to do likewise when she saw a small party from the Hermes and Hecate cabins sneak back to their side. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw some red fabric being carried away. _The Flag! _Viv raced after them, keeping her sword in the en guarde position.

* * *

><p>Nathan stood at his post, bored out of his mind. Sure, the work was taxing, and it got harder and harder the further the distance, but thankfully the Hecate and Hermes kids were returning, so it was getting easier. Eliza was about five metres behind him, doing the same thing he was. It would have been a lot easier if the other three in his cabin were there, but they were AWOL. Then suddenly, his luck was cut off.<p>

"What the Hades?" Nathan unsheathed his hastily chosen sword from his side. Ok now, they were definitely close by now... So whoever had stopped the decoy was near by too.

Suddenly, Viv broke from the shadows of the trees.  
>"You DID NOT seriously try and luck that DECOY!" Vivian was rushing towards him. For one who claimed to be above such games, Viv took them way too seriously. Ok, according to the Athena kids he was supposed to stand his ground and keep all intruders from coming closer in. That should be easy.<p>

He willed for Viv to trip on some roots but... nothing. Oh. Crap. Ok. No skill with the sword. No luck working. Time to get backup.

"Get up Eliza, find some freaking backup!" His sister nodded before taking off to try and find some other defenders. When she was gone he turned again to his attacker. "Viv, why do you have to neutralise my luck?"

"It's my duty." she smirked, before proceeding to beat him up.

Nathan woke up in the infirmary with a huge headache. Ow ow ow ow... It felt like a gang of dwarves was tunneling through his skull using some very blunt pickaxes.

What had happened?... Oh right. He remembered. Viv had happened. Ugh. Did she have to knock him out? A vague recollection of their taxi trip floated into his brain. _"What? I didn't take away your precious law books." _Bloody Nemesis and their bloody revenge. He groaned into his pillow. The dwarves had started tunneling again.

A rustle sounded over to his right. "So, Sleeping Ugly awakes, huh?"

Nathan groaned again. "Go away, Gel."

The speaker was a daughter of Nyx called Angeline Lim, whose tongue was sharper than any sword in the armoury. Unless, of course, you were her friend, and then she'd only be sharper than _most_swords in the armoury. "Glad to know you love me so much. Oh, by the way, there's some ambrosia on your bedside table."

Nathan reached up and shoved it into his mouth. Mmmm. It tasted like his dad's homemade pepperoni pizza. He could feel the painful lump on his head fading away.

"Tell me when you've finished your private moment with the ambrosia, will you?" drawled Angeline.

Nathan licked his lips, expecting them to be covered in pizza sauce. "All done. So what brings you here?"

"Doing what I'm meant to do." The lights in the room flickered then brightened again. She winced. "You know, Instant Peruvian Darkness in demigod form."

"But why in the infirmary?" Using his elbows Nathan sat up on the bed a little more. His vision swum for a moment before the ambrosia kicked in. "Ah... Much better... Less dwarves..." Angeline gave him a strange look until she attributed the phrase to his general character.

"Just because I can really. I mean, I kind of feel responsible for your situation, being on the blue-team and for being shut up in the infirmary with most of the Aphrodite-spawn." Nathan looked around him to find that she was indeed, correct. "Also because I tried to keep the darkness on for a bit too long." She winced and patted her abdomen.  
>So <em>that<em>was why it seemed a bit dark...

"Ah, so you wanted to ruin all the fun I would have with all the ladies..."

Angeline rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, Nathan."

"You're the second person who's told me that today. Plus, I'm very lucky with the ladies." He waggled his eyebrows accordingly.

"Pfft, yeah right. I happen to know that your sister scares away all your dates. She believes that using your demigod powers to attract mortals is unmoral or something like that." Angeline watched with interest as Nathan coloured a bright cherry red before turning away.

"Shuddup Nyx-chick."

"You brought it up oar-boy."

"Ah, a feud. How interesting." The air around him seemed to drop to some degree as the new voice entered the conversation. Slowly Nathan turned around to find that it was in fact, Viv, the one who got him in here in the first place.

"So did the decoy work?" Viv's eyes narrowed. Crap. He had to get a filter on this head-mouth thing.

"Not really, red team won." Viv handed Nathan a keychain, one he hadn't seen before. "You got a delivery, and for some reason I was chosen to be the most trustworthy to give it to you, or something." It was a mini Magic-8Ball attached to a keychain. A little note covered in plastic hung next to it.

"Um... thanks?"

Viv snorted "It's not from me. It's from your mom. It arrived at the Big House after I handed your ass to you in capture the flag. Chiron gave it to me afterwards, seeing as I was kind of responsible for you being unable to get it yourself."

"Just kind of?" he snorted, but he wasn't interested in her reply. Instead, he read the note, handily in Ancient Greek.  
><em><br>Dear Nathan,  
><em>_Shake three times and say 'Weapon' for turning on and off. Don't shake it too much.  
><em>_- Tyche. _

Nathan shrugged his shoulders, trying to act nonchalant even though inside he was bursting with joy. A gift from his mom! He shook the ball three times and said, "Weapon." The little white shape inside turned. He had just enough time to see it said 'knife' when, it turned into a knife, made of celestial bronze. Everyone was silent for a second.

"That _is _pretty cool." said Angeline, "Can it turn into a mace?" The mace had, after many, many years of experimentation been discovered to be the weapon she had the most skill in, mostly because she liked smashing stuff to little bits. Little, tiny bits.

"I have no idea." Nathan shook the knife three times and said "Weapon." The knife changed back into its keychain form again. "Thanks Mom."

All was quiet again until Viv sighed.

"Well, I suppose I should go back and continue reading my law book. Delivering this to you has taken a lot of my time you know. You now owe me approximately," she glanced at her watch, "10 minutes of your time to deliver something for me."

Nathan meekly nodded his head. He had found out long ago how adept she was at keeping her promises. Viv turned on her heel and left, leaving Angeline, himself, and several unconscious Aphrodite girls alone in the infirmary.

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading! Please review!<p> 


	2. A Dying Tree, A Prophecy and the Call of

**The Abduction of the Poppy**

Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfiction by Tohkalia and Miss-Li-ding

DISCLAIMER: We own PJO... My sarcasm detector is pinging. I wonder why...

Chapter 2 - A Dying Tree, A Prophecy and the Call of Nature

"Can all heads and deputies of cabins please meet immediately at the Big House?"

Viv was unhappily pulled from her sleep by the message blaring through the intercom that was handily connected in each cabin.

With a groan she opened her eyes and leaned over the ledge of her bunk and peered down at Jacob's bunk below her. It was empty. Oh... right. He had gotten a minor concussion protecting some Aphrodite-spawn. Vivian sighed at her brother's folly. Now she was obliged to go and see whatever Chiron had intercommed for. Being a representative of a group wasn't her best strength, which was why she was deputy.

Sliding down the ladder, she chose her sister Jane to be the acting deputy whilst assuring the rest of her siblings that she would go instead of Jacob. She hastily changed into a camp T-shirt and a pair of board-shorts. She quickly brushed her hair, pulled it back into a messy ponytail and ran over to the big house, Jane doing likewise and following her.

They were one of the last to arrive which meant that she was already scowling when she got to the meeting. Nathan was there. She walked up to him, cross.  
>"What are you doing here, isn't Patricia the head and Oliver the deputy?"<p>

Nathan shrugged, "They aren't here. So it's just me and my new sister Eliza." He motioned to a young girl who stood shyly behind him. "Eliza, this is Vivian. Remember what I said about her?"

The girl proceeded to speak in a strong British accent. "That she's a daughter of Nemesis, your adopt_ive _sister and is also a great huge smarta-"

"What?" Nathan cut her off as his cheeks coloured. "I didn't tell you that, did I?"

Vivian wasn't fooled. "Very funny Nathan." There were no more chances of retorts from either party as the Nyx cabin head and deputy, who happened to be Angeline, arrived, and Chiron started the meeting.

"All right now campers, the Demeter cabin has something to say." The head girl of Demeter, Julian or Jules or something, stepped forward. She was pale and her eyes were red-rimmed.

"As you all know, in the middle of the Demeter cabin is a tree, planted there by mother and sustained with her power. But when Alexis woke up in the middle of the night, the tree had died, which probably means- means-" she took a shaky breath, "Demeter- There's something wrong with Demeter."

Most of the gathering erupted into chatter except for Viv and a few others. There was no one near her who she would normally talk to. As per usual for some strange reason, the Aphrodite-spawn were to her right, while Nathan and his sister were to her left. She and Jane weren't that close and both weren't the type to prolong a meeting. However much she didn't want to hear it, the Aphrodite gossip was still better than the sound of silence, to a certain extent.

"Like, oh my gods, I can't, like, believe that this is happened. Poor Demeter..." Then they both were silent as they stopped to reapply their makeup. Chiron stomped one of his hooves, a call for silence. Gradually the room became silent and Chiron began again.

"We are here to organise a party to go and see Demeter and to ascertain what is wrong. Are there any volunteers?" Of course, the head of the Demeter cabin raised her hand. The head of Dionysus also raised his. That left space for one more. Viv looked towards the Athena cabin, sure that one of them would decide to go too but was surprised to find that the last volunteer was Angeline.

Chiron nodded. "Very well. You three shall set off first thing in the morning. You may go back to your cabins now."

The noise level rose again, until someone shouted out, "Don't they need to visit the Oracle?"

Viv glared at him. She wanted to go back to sleep, curse him.

Chiron cleared his throat. "This is only a reconnaissance mission. They are not expected to search for Demeter. Once they come back with a report, we will then consult the Oracle if need be." Chiron stamped his hoof to show he needed no extra decision on the matter. "Now, I think the rest of you can go back to your cabins. As for transport, Argus will take you there in the van. Now, shoo, all of you."

Viv didn't bother to look back as she hurried to her cabin. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nathan moving in to talk with Angeline with Eliza tagging behind him. She was in half a mind to walk back and see what they were talking about, but a wave of drowsiness washed through her. Oh well. She could always interrogate Nathan tomorrow.

* * *

><p>Angeline was going to go on the recon trip? Nathan raised an eyebrow. Huh. Interesting... Man, was he sleepy... He had foolishly played a game on his Mimtemdo SD late into the night and only got a few hours' sleep before he was woken up by Chiron and the meeting. He laid his head down on the ping-pong table and closed his eyes.<p>

THUMP! A loud bang jolted him up again. He stirred only to catch the last few words. "...you...van...shoo, all of you." Grumbling to himself, he got up, and, after spotting Angeline in the group of people, pushed through the crowd towards her. "Angeline!"

She turned around. "Buttface! Good to see you."

"I feel so loved..."

"You must be Angeline..." Nathan turned around to see Eliza behind him. Ever since he had saved her from Viv's wrath she had ghosted him. She also possessed the ability to know people's names from vague descriptions.

Nathan sighed. "Yes, that's Angeline."

The three of them started walking slowly towards the cabins. "Just curious, but why did you volunteer for the recon mission?" asked Nathan.

"Yeah, aren't you a daughter of...uh...Nixon or something?" chimed Eliza.

Angeline shrugged. "Why not? And it's Nyx, not Nixon. Geez. I haven't been on a mission forever either..."

Nathan mock-pouted. "Come on Angieeeeeeee..."

Angeline stiffened. "Don't call me Angie, Nathaniel." she snapped.

"My name's not Nathaniel." Don't ask him how he knew, but he was sure there was another reason why she wanted to go.

There was silence for a moment. Eliza seemed to be looking funnily at Angeline.

Angeline suddenly huffed. "My grandmother Miranda was a daughter of Demeter. So I suppose I should, for Nana." Nathan smiled inwardly. So _that's_what Eliza was doing. If she didn't end up as a reasonably powerful daughter of Tyche, he would eat his hat.

Eliza frowned. "But, that's like, ages ago!"

Nathan nodded. "Wasn't Miranda Gardiner around in the Second Titan War and the Second Giant War? As a fighter?"

"Yeah, she used to rave about it all the time..."

Wow. That would have been so cool! "I wish I knew your Nana..." he said wistfully. "Percy Jackson's one of my favourite heroes."

Angeline nodded. They didn't speak until they got to the Nyx cabin, where Eliza and Nathan wished her good night.

"Second Titan and Giant Wars, huh?" said Eliza.

"Yep, they were epic, apparently."

Eliza was unusually quiet for a moment. "Uh...so who's Percy Jackson? What's the Second Titan War? And the Second Giant War as well."

Needless to say, neither of them got much sleep that night.

* * *

><p>Nathan was, coincidentally on the patrol when it happened. The dragon that had guarded the Golden Fleece that protected the camp had in the last few years… Well, he was responsible for a couple of the satyrs reincarnating into flowers. Until the vacancy was filled, there had to be border patrols to protect them from any Cyclopes that might want to take it.<p>

It had been three days since Eye-guy had taken away the recon team, and things had deteriorated. The strawberry fields had turned yellow as well as the grass and most of the trees. They were only barely clinging to life because of the Demeter children, and even that was hard for them to do. It wasn't so bad in the other places in the world- it seemed that the effects of Demeter's absence were spreading out slowly.

He was just about to swap over guard when suddenly the familiar battle call of Ares was played out on the trumpet. It came from the direction of Thalia's tree. Maybe Angeline was back! But why would the war call be played? Looking out towards Thalia's tree, Nathan saw the reason. The recon team _had_returned, but Nathan felt his stomach drop. Shadowy, dark canine shapes started loping up half-blood hill.

"Hell-hounds!" The shout was carried down to him by a helpful wind. Nathan was already running, activating his keychain. He didn't look to see what it said, just kept running. The keychain turned from the shape of a ball to a spear. Oh well, it would have to do. Others on patrol closer to the tree than Nathan had already begun to charge at the hell-hounds, they were holding back two of the three but, the third one ran by unchallenged.

Nathan was close to Angeline now; she was just around ten, twenty metres in front of him. But, he could see that the hell-hound would get to Angeline before he did.  
>Nathan closed his eyes, drew his arm back and, using more luck than he had ever tried before, with an additional prayer to his mother, he threw the spear at the hell-hound, hoping his aim would be good enough to stop it in its tracks.<p>

His mother must have been in a really good mood, for the spear flew unhindered through the air and struck the hell-hound straight in its chest, though, because of the celestial bronze tip Nathan didn't see much of the gore before the hell-hound dissipated into smoke. Nathan skidded to a halt besides Angeline and shook her.

"Angeline? Angeline!"

She was silent.

Knowing she would hate him for it but not caring anyway, Nathan slung her over across his shoulders and raced back with her across the border. He put her down next to the tree and shook her again, albeit a bit gentler than before. "Angeline?"

No reaction. Her eyes were open but they seemed to be focusing on something far away. Nathan picked her up under her arms and placed her in the shadowy side of the tree. Her eyes started to focus a bit. That had to be better than before, Nathan mused.

A deep growl brought his thoughts back to the present. The others who had been on patrol were still fighting the remaining hell-hounds. Nathan went to reach inside his pocket for his keychain… except that he had no pocket. He cursed under his breath. Stupid shorts. His weapon would now be safely inside his Camp Half-Blood endorsed hoodie, hanging on his peg in the Tyche cabin.

So, being unable to help his comrades by fighting, he lucked them on. By the time reinforcements arrived the other hell-hounds were all sent back to Tartarus.

Nathan unstrapped his helmet as the last of the hell-hounds was finished off. When the Apollo medics came around, Nathan called one over. He stepped out of the way as the Apollo kid checked Angeline over. She opened her eyelids, flashed a light in them, felt her pulse on her neck and checked her temperature, along with a variety of other tests which Nathan lost count of. When she had finished checking Angeline, she turned and looked at Nathan.

"Are you her friend?" Nathan gulped. Could something be seriously wrong with her? Nervously he nodded. "Good then. I need you to slap her."

"Why can't you do it?" Nathan didn't really want to die right then and there.

The medic girl seemed to have the same thought process. "I prefer life." She shrugged. "She'll probably be less inclined to kill you." Nathan gruffly nodded, gulped nervously and tried his version at slapping her, which was more of a tap.

The Apollo medic snorted. "Come on now; imagine she's someone you hate."

Nathan squeezed his eyes shut and imagined Viv's smug face after taking revenge on him. He slapped Angeline. When he opened his eyes the Apollo medic was nodding approvingly. "Remind me not to get on your bad side."

Angeline seemed to come around, glaring at Nathan while rubbing her cheek.

"Hey, I was just acting on directions of a medic." He grumbled, before remembering that he was worried about her. "Are you ok? What happened out there, you kind of spaced out…"

Angeline looked away and was silent for a few seconds, but then abruptly snorted.

"I don't know, idiot, probably the result of being near you again or of doing physical exercise in daylight." She shuddered at the thought, but to Nathan, it seemed forced. "How'd I get here anyway?"

A call from another medic caused the Apollo girl to get to her feet. "I think I'll trust you in making sure she gets to the infirmary." The medic excused herself and rushed over to her brother.

When everyone was out of earshot he sheepishly mumbled, "I kind of carried you."

"I _hate _being man-handled, Nathan."

"Hey, it was either let you be eaten by hell-hounds or carry you." Angeline was silent for a moment and then sighed.

"Fine." Suddenly, the Demeter girl, Julian, and the Dionysus boy, Kevin, who had also been on the recon team, walked up to Angeline.

"Angeline, we need to go to the big house and report back to Chiron." Angeline nodded at the Julian's order and got to her feet, but not for long.

"Whoa!" Angeline lost her balance and braced herself against the tree for support.

"Hey, let me help you." Nathan stood up and offered his shoulder. After a second's hesitation Angeline accepted his help and put her right arm around his left shoulder.

Nathan awkwardly let his left arm hang until Angeline snapped and said, "For Olympus' sake Nate, just put your hand around my waist." Nathan did as she said. Julian giggled in amusement as he slowly made their way towards the Big House.

"So what happened at Olympus?" Nathan asked. The fact that hell-hounds had been chasing them wasn't the best indication.

"Let's just say that what we found at Demeter's temple wasn't the most promising."

* * *

><p>Vivian wiped her hands on her apron once she had finally finished glitterfying (note to self: make that a word) a junior camper's ukulele. Those muse kids had nothing on her skills. The junior camper, a ten year old child of Apollo, grinned happily up at Viv. She replied with an equally happy smile before resuming her usual blank face when the junior camper ran over to her friends.<p>

She glared at all the other senior campers with a look that said, 'ruin-her-ukelele-and-there-will-be-Hades-to-suffer'. They nodded, somewhat hesitant, in response. Pleased they had got the message, Viv hung her apron on the hook and walked out of the arts and crafts hut. She really needed to go to the bathroom.

A moment later, Viv nearly jumped out of her skin as a nearby intercom buzzed to life.

"Attention all heads and deputies of cabins, please meet at The Big House ASAP." the message repeated again, and again, and again.

"I get the message Chiron, so shut up." Sadly, the intercom was a one-way device. With a sigh Viv jogged over to the head house, curious if the meeting had to do anything with the recon team. She had a gut feeling that they were back, and from the look of the strawberry fields she had a feeling there wasn't going to be good news.

Within a reasonable amount of time Viv had reached The Big House. She turned the handle and walked into the main room to find most of the other heads and deputies had already arrived. The back of the room was breezy so she pushed her way through until she was at the front. Nathan was sitting on a chair, armour on, head in hands. An Apollo kid gave him a cup of nectar which he sipped at gratefully. So Nathan had been lucking, Viv guessed. Not much reason to keep observing him. Angeline, the Demeter-girl and the Dionysus-boy were all standing at full alert.

Chiron entered the room with the new Oracle, Jenny. The old Oracle, Miss Thomson, retired from the job after breaking her hip. Her niece Jenny took up the position. Even though she was thirteen, visions flowed through her easily.

Finally, the last cabin to arrive (Hypnos, what a surprise), burst through the door then settled meekly among the back row.

"Now that we have all gathered," Chiron's voice carried through the air, "we shall consult the Oracle, for we do not have much time to lose. The recon team has returned, but with sad news; Demeter is gone. Hell-hounds and other creatures have been chasing them non-stop the moment they left Olympus, so, if any of you not chosen by the prophecy get any brave ideas, I hope you won't underestimate what you'll be up against. Jenny, if you will."

Chiron helped her get onto her Oracle chair- a tripod-like stool. Jenny took a shaky breath and closed her eyes. The green smoke that came out of her mouth always creeped out Viv. She instantly regretted being in the front row.  
>The tripled, reptilian voice of the Oracle echoed around the room.<p>

"_Brother born of luck and fortune_

_Seek the path that turns to ruin._

_Sister born of justice spurned_

_Find the lady who has turned._

_Daughter born of dark and night_

_Find the poppy, protect the light._

_Three shall go and four shall come_

_But beware the plants that grow as one._"

Viv shuddered as the green mist slithered back into Jenny's mouth. How could she lower herself to allow that parasite to infect her body? Thoughts on her opinions of the Oracle Spirit aside; the prophecy had struck a chord in Viv. She had heard prophecies before, and they were never this specific on details like who would go. Probably to make it all vague and mysterious. And they were never this cheerful.

The room burst into chattering. Chiron turned and talked to Jenny for a bit before looking deep in thought. It looked like pretty fake thoughtfulness to Viv. He was probably just trying to keep up the whole 'thoughtful and wise' mentor thing alive.

"You have heard all of the prophecy." Chiron stamped his hoof to gain attention. "All of you may leave except Nyx, Tyche and Nemesis cabins." He twisted around and reached into his saddlebag, drawing out the conch shell. "Can I have all of Nyx, Tyche and Nemesis cabins in The Big House immediately." He spoke into it and soon the intercoms blared into life, repeating his message two times.

The rest of the gathering sullenly slunk outside, trickling like a small stream. All the others except the Demeter-girl left. She wouldn't move an inch, but no-one really expected her to leave.

While waiting for the others to arrive Viv decided that socialising was the best way to pass the time. Temporary insanity was what she called it. She walked further into the room, not towards Nathan, who was still nursing a headache, but to Angeline. "Hey, how was the recon mission?"

Angeline looked at her strangely. "You... concerned? With me?"

Viv gave her a look.

Angeline shrugged. "I guess it was ok, minus the hell-hounds."

"What's so bad about them? It's not like they're drakons or something right? Ah... good times."

"What are you talking about? Drakons. I've never seen a drakon in my life thank-you-very-much. And I'm pretty sure you've never seen one either."

"That's what they want you to think..." Angeline rolled her eyes. Their attention was drawn to Chiron stamping his hoof... again. Didn't he know of another way of getting people's attention? He was going to break a hole in the floor if he kept it up.

"Now that we have all gathered, I shall repeat the prophecy and we will figure out who are the chosen ones."  
>Viv half-listened as Chiron repeated the prophecy. She had a few theories, none of the particularly appealing to her and thus didn't voice them. Unfortunately her brother Jacob had other plans.<p>

"The first person to go is easy. It should be Nathan." he said.

The idiot himself, still with a headache, briefly straightened up at the mention of his name, but soon huddled down again from pain.

"Do you need more nectar, Nathan?" asked Chiron, immediately launching into his role as the concerned mother-figure.

"Nectar... not work... not physical pain." he muttered to his lap.

"You think he's one of the ones who's going to find Demeter?" said one of the Nyx cabin, half sneering. Most of the room chuckled in mutual agreement. Tristram Stewart _was_ pretty persuasive, with his deep blue eyes and black hair. Apparently, he was the camp's closest definition to 'tall, dark and handsome'. Not that Viv paid any special attention to him... It was just that the Aphrodite-spawn always squealed over him and his 'stats'. In fact, she ignored him as most she could as whenever she talked to him, it turned into an argument.

"Hey, it's just like the stomach ache you get after making lights dimmer."

Like now. Viv clamped her mouth shut. Had she just defended Nathan? Was she going insane? First, wanting to talk and secondly, defending Nate! What next, seeing flying pigs and having sleep-overs with Aphrodite-spawn?

"Hey, he's the one not making grammatical sense."

"So grammar skills are what we need to find Demeter?" she mocked. The impending argument was put on hold by Jacob.

"I think Vivian is the second one." Vivian whipped around to face her traitorous brother.

"What did you say, Jacob?" She raised a single eyebrow.

Jacob quailed for a moment, looking sheepishly at Viv. "Well, you _are_ his adoptive sister... and the wording in prophecies always matter. I mean, if it were 'cousins', then it would have been open to anyone in either cabin. But it was _sister _and _brother._"

"I agree." Chiron said. "Jacob's reasonings are sound. Vivian is the only one who could be considered a 'sister' to Nathan."

Viv frowned "Hold on, I am _not _going on a quest with that idiot."

"Demeter needs your help, _Vivian,_ you don't have a choice. Oh, how _horrible _is it for you to have been chosen by the prophecy_._" sneered the Demeter-girl.

Viv glared hard at her. _I owe you one annoying remark_ she mentally noted, upset that her aptly named 'Notebook of Debts' was in her cabin.

"Vivian, I know that even as siblings-"

"Adopted siblings." Both she and Nathan cut Chiron off. Viv glared at Nathan, who slunk back into his headache recovery position. If it was anyone else he probably would have said _piase kokkino_ then touched something red, the superstitious idiot. But as they were bound to get into an argument sooner or later, he didn't even bother. **(1)  
><strong>  
>"For adopted siblings," Chiron sighed, "you don't get on that well. But you must put your differences aside and work together for the greater good."<p>

Viv gritted her teeth. She _really_ hated it when any one brought out the 'greater good' card. Nonetheless she remained silent. It was better to let Chiron think he had made a good point than get into an argument with him.

"Now that we have sorted that out," Chiron turned away from Viv and towards the group of Nyx-children, "all we need to do now is find the 'Daughter of darkness and night'."

Simultaneously all of the male children of Nyx stepped back. Nyx didn't have that many demigod children, so there were about three candidates for the position.

There was Jess Rover, but she was thirteen and had only been claimed at the start of camp that year. From what Angeline said of her, she could be compared to an electrical dimmer. Not enough experience. Then there was Jazz Cook. She was noted for being a powerful offspring of Nyx. The other candidate was Angeline. They all stood in a line and faced Chiron.

A pause just long enough to be acknowledged as 'awkward' followed as they waited for Chiron to choose the other member of the team. He gave a horse-like nickering sound while shrugging his shoulders. "It's not up to me to choose the members of the team." He motioned to Viv and to Nathan, who had gotten up and was standing next to Viv, albeit leaning against the table.

They both looked at each other, and with a rare moment of telepathy that people gained after having lived in the same house for seven or so years, simultaneously said the same name.

"Angeline Lim." It was an easy choice for Viv. Jazz was probably more powerful, but Viv didn't know her enough to trust her with her life, which they might be forced to do. Angeline was a mace wielding maniac, but she was a mace wielding maniac that she _trusted... _well, at least to a higher degree than she did Jazz. Angeline briefly looked surprised, accepting praises from her siblings modestly before joining Nathan and Viv.

"Now it is settled, Argus will take you to New York tomorrow morning. From there, you will be on your own. I suggest you start preparing."

Viv sighed. Packing again? She was about to raise her voice to complain, but an uncomfortable feeling in her abdomen reminded her of the reason why she was out of the Arts and Crafts hut in the first place.

"Now that's all sorted, I hope no one will mind if I excuse myself to the bathroom."

* * *

><p><strong>(1) <strong>When 2 people say the same thing together they immediately say "piase kokkino" which means 'red touch', both must touch any red item they can find around. This happens because Greeks believe that saying the same thing is an omen and that the 2 persons will get into a fight or an argument if they don't touch a red thing.

Thanks for reading! Please review! Reviews make us so happy we breathe rainbows for the rest of the day!


	3. Battling Bacon to Get Directions from a

**The Abduction of the Poppy**

Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfiction by Tohkalia and Miss-Li-ding

DISCLAIMER: If we owned PJO, would we be doing this?

Chapter Three - Battling Bacon to Get Directions from a Bipolar Season

Nathan was in his room, packing his meagre belongings into an even smaller bag. He was supposed to have done this last night but standing up without help had been hard. He had tried to pack anyway, but realised it wasn't going to work when he managed to pack only a single sock into his bag after an hour. Eliza was no help- she had been pretty exhausted after her first week at camp.

Just thinking about that day made his head throb. Whenever he used an excessive amount of luck, it caused him to have a massive headache. Busy escorting Angeline, the headache hadn't appeared, but as soon as he stopped concentrating on helping her, it hit hard.

So, there he was, the following morning, packing his bag whilst reassuring Eliza that everything would be okay whilst she nervously paced the cabin. Multi-tasking wasn't something he was good at, especially when still suffering a headache. It was better than last night, but still throbbing anxiously at his temples.

"What if I need extra battle training?"

A spare T-shirt, not bright orange and without the demigod identifying title.

"Just go to a Ares girl called Sophia Robinson. Tell her she owes me a favour."

"What if I need more clothes?"

A micro-fibre towel and a micro-fibre blanket.

"Go to a son of Hermes called Steven Hutchings. He'll steal something from the shop if you tell him I'll make Amelia run into him." He snickered at the thought.

"What if I get wounded?"

A first aid kit along with some nectar and ambrosia. Some crackers, water, chocolate, muesli bars and some popcorn.

"Infirmary or Apollo cabin." Nathan zipped up his bag. It was still mostly empty. That meant that there was room for picking up things and for carrying some of the girls' stuff.

"What if the cabin catches on fire?"

Shove keychain, wallet full of mortal money and drawstring bag full of drachmas into jacket pockets.

"Luck your way out of the blaze and get the Poseidon kids to clear up to mess." Before Eliza added onto his headache again, he patted her shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry. Patricia emailed me saying that she'll be here Wednesday. You'll be fine."

He walked over to the cabin's wishing well and threw in a gold drachma as an offering to his mother for good luck. Walking out of the hut he reached up and touched the horse-shoe then knocked on the wooden board it was nailed onto. He looked at his watch. Crap. Late. He jogged towards Thalia's tree, where Argus was supposed to be waiting when he ran into Viv and Angeline, waiting for him at the base of the hill.

Viv's duffel bag, surprisingly not bursting with items, was slung over her shoulder. Angeline's messenger bag lay at her feet. Viv wore jean-shorts and a T-shirt, her dark brown hair pulled back into a low, loose ponytail. Angeline looked like she was dressed for winter. She wore long black trousers and a long-sleeved dark purple shirt under a dark grey hoodie. Her eyes were hidden behind a massive pair of black sunglasses and he could see a tube of sunscreen poking out of her trouser pocket.

"Took you long enough, Lucky." Viv chewed something green -gum- before spitting it out. She had never liked minty things. "Had to make your superstitious departing customs, I suppose?"

"Those 'superstitious departing customs' have saved my life many times, thank you very much."

Viv snorted. "Unlike moi, you've never been on a quest before."

"I use them when I leave to go back home after each summer." Nathan retorted. "I generally need it, what with you around." Viv glared. Before she could reply, probably with one of her 'I owe you...' statements Angeline butted in.

"Come on guys, Argus is waiting. It's practically eleven. Not a cool look."

"I suppose you're right." sighed Viv, but the determined look on her face made Nathan guess that she was making a mental note, the type that she always managed to remember. She would probably put it in her 'Notebook of Debts' before the day was over.

As Gel had guessed, Argus was indeed waiting by the van, his eye-covered hands crossed over his chest. The trio apologised for keeping him waiting before climbing into the van. No-one had wanted to sit behind Argus (according to a Hermes camper he had eyes on the back of his neck) so after a brief tussle, a smug Vivian hopped into the van, followed by Angeline, and finally, a scowling Nathan, who settled in behind Argus. Argus climbed into the driver's side, buckled up his safety belt then started the van.

It seemed a few lifetimes later when Nathan and Co. finally got around to getting their bags out of the van and waving goodbye to Argus as he left them behind in Central Park.

"Next time I am _not _sitting behind Argus."

"Uh, yes you are." Both girls nodded simultaneously.

"And don't tell us to do the weird red touch thing." said Angeline, rolling her eyes.

They walked through the park for a while in silence, mostly so they could gather their thoughts. Gel stayed mostly to the shadows, Viv far away from Nathan and Nathan far away from Viv. As they walked along Nathan realised that they had somehow moved in the opposite direction of any crowds. Before he could make his point known, his attention was taken by something else, as it was then that the monster revealed itself to their group.

* * *

><p>Viv's first thought on seeing the monster was 'I shouldn't have tempted the fates. Now my future best friend is almost certain to be a freaking Aphrodite-spawn.' Her next thought was also accidentally voiced.<p>

"Do we just live in a world of cliches?" In front of them stood a giant boar. Like most giant boars it was the same height of a Clydesdale horse, though a whole lot bulkier. Unlike most giant boars however, two giant wings sprouted from its back, looking big enough to support it in flight, except for the fact that one of the wings looked badly broken.

Angeline, the one who painstakingly went and looked up all the obscure myths mumbled something. Viv nervously tugged at her ear to indicate she hadn't heard.  
>"Clazomenaean Boar." She hissed a bit louder than before.<p>

The boar, who had been digging at the root of a tree, probably for its dinner, suddenly tensed up. The trio simultaneously took out their weapons. Angeline her mace, Viv her sword and Nathan's turned into a knife. He deactivated it, then activated it again. It turned into a spear. He seemed happy with it, but looked at it quizzically.

The boar had turned around fully now. It raised its wings above it to make it look bigger. With an ear-splitting squeal it charged at them. As it passed, it jerked its head upwards, as if to slash them with its giant tusks. After a sounder of giant boars had made themselves a nice home on Long Island, all campers had been informally... trained how to dodge giant charging monsters. Viv and Angeline dodged to the right, Nathan to the left. The boar raced right past them and into a tree, where it stumbled over onto its side, snorting furiously.

"Hey, is that a person?" Nathan seemed to be peering around the pig. Viv did likewise and confirmed his suspicions. There, on the ground was a lady in a golden dress, unfortunately next to the boar.

"At times like these I hate the fact that we are heroes." Angeline sighed.

"But then you wouldn't mash half as many monsters to little bits." whispered Viv.

"Little, tiny bits." added Nathan in a hushed voice.

Another sigh from Angeline. "I suppose you're right."

The boar shook its head a couple of times then turned around and flicked its ears around, trying to pinpoint their position. Oh crap. Good hearing... right... Suddenly, Vivian sneezed. It was so unexpected that she hadn't had the chance to try and stop it. The boar's ears swivelled to her direction before quickly charging again, in the direction of Angeline and Viv. This time it spread its good wing, its right wing, out at its side at human-height.

Viv had just enough time to position herself out of the boar's tusks before ducking and meekly trying to scratch the boar's hide as it rushed past. Her strike had no reaction; the hide was too tough. To it, the scratch was probably the equivalent of a paper-cut. However, it _did _squeal after its charge was finished.  
>Viv stood up from her crouch and faced the boar again. It seemed to be taking weight off its left hind leg. Angeline had a malicious grin on her face, but her forehead was beaded with sweat, the result of a strip of darkness around the boar's eyes, limiting its sight even further.<p>

The boar seemed less than happy. It swung its head side to side but found that the darkness just followed its eyes. It grumbled to itself for a moment, put weight on its leg and squealed again. When it turned its head to their general direction, Viv could practically sense the waves of hatred flowing off it. Nathan jogged over to Viv and Angeline. Viv would have snorted at any other point but with an animal that had good hearing, she guessed it wasn't the brightest idea. Nathan pointed to his eyes and then to the left side of his chest, like she didn't know where to strike the boar. Viv rolled her eyes then made an angry gesture at her rapier; it wasn't the best choice for hunting boar, what was she supposed to do?

"I don't know." Nathan protested out loud, then clamped his hand over his mouth. Viv and Angeline didn't have time to berate Nathan for his major slip-up, the boar pin-pointed their location again and began charging. Angeline let the darkness dissipate, Viv didn't blame her. To keep it dark around its eyes while it charged would be pretty darn hard, especially at noon. This time, its wing was out again, except that it rose up and down.

The boar charged them. Angeline moved so she would be on its right side when it passed, Nathan stuck close to Viv, to which she was actually grateful for. When the boar charged past, instead of just slashing up as it had before, it swung its head to its right. Viv's blood turned cold as she heard Angeline cry out in pain. Viv dodged away from the pig, not bothering to scratch it again. Nathan tried to stab the boar behind the jaw but failed. The tip had just missed.

Once the boar had passed they both ran over to Angeline, who was slowly getting to her feet. She held her arm to her chest and mouthed the words 'broken rib'. Viv clenched her jaw and closed her eyes. As she got older, her natural instinct for her revenge had gotten stronger and stronger, until she could almost feel it, a knotty ball behind her sternum. This pig had hurt Angeline, and probably the lady in the golden dress. The knotty ball pressed against her sternum, swelling up. Oh boy, was that pig screwed...

"Nathan, give me your spear." she commanded. Nathan knew better than to not agree, he handed her his spear and she gave him her rapier in return. The boar pointed itself in Viv's direction, but she didn't care. When the boar charged, Viv did likewise, shouting as she went.

"You think you can best us bacon! I eat you for breakfast! You aren't even the monster Percy Jackson dueled! You're supposed to be a freaking sow!" The boar did not shy from the challenge, in fact, it increased its speed. The fact that Viv directly questioned its gender probably had something to do to egg it on.

Just before Viv collided with the boar she rammed the spear into the ground like she'd seen some medieval dudes do when hunting boars in a movie. The boar, seeing the obstacle, tried to veer from its path but it was too late. It ran itself onto the spear, Viv had just enough time to keep the spear in place and to feel it hit against something before rolling underneath the boar.

Viv was pissed off. Majorly. If the shaft had hit the heart she shouldn't have been able to _feel _anything. Now, instead of killing it, all she'd done was break its rib and lose the only really useful weapon they had against the boar. Being the daughter of Nemesis did have its benefits: intimidation factors, great swordsmanship, but in the end, she could only give as much as was taken from her.

The boar knew it was losing now- it was far too wounded. But, being what it was, it was determined to fight to the end.

Viv jogged over to join Nathan and Angeline. Nathan's weapon had returned to his pocket, already turned into a sword. He handed her back her rapier. With a nod to Nathan and Angeline they silently agreed on their battle plan. They would charge at the boar and try to finish this once and for all.

For a moment all was silent. Then simultaneously the two parties charged at each other. Viv, Angeline and Nathan roared out a battle cry while the boar squealed. But as they started to charge, everyone slowed down as if they were moving in honey.

It was too nice a day, Vivian decided, to kill such a creature. She looked at Angeline and Nathan. They seemed to be slowing down too. Even the boar looked a whole lot calmer, like it had smelt truffles. Viv felt like doing nothing except going to the beach, sunbathe, maybe even have a swim... It was those thoughts that jarred her back to the present. She _hated_the beach. A hand, almost uncomfortably warm, was placed on her shoulder. Viv turned around to find the lady in the golden dress, the reason they had decided to fight the boar, up and beaming.

"Now, now children, isn't this _much _better? No point in killing one another, is there? Just deactivate your weapons now..." Despite herself, Viv flicked her wrist, causing her sword to turn back into a ruler. Nathan and Angeline did the same. Nathan's sword shrunk down into his keychain, and Angeline's mace compressed itself to form a can of...mace. Huh.

"There we go. Clazo, I think you should go down to the river there, maybe cool down a bit. I always feel sorry for you pigs, no sweat glands and all. Don't worry, I'll come find you later and fix your wing, rib and leg for you, poor darling." The boar, once a raging mad killer, meekly snuffled then trotted away. The demigods' feelings of satisfaction dissipated and they all faced the woman who had sent the boar away.

"Ah, children of the gods, I suppose? I've been looking for you."

* * *

><p>Nathan had to admit that the lady in the golden dress was beautiful. Startlingly so. She looked in her late twenties, with tanned skin and light brown hair streaked with natural looking blonde highlights piled in an elegant hairstyle on top of her head. Her teeth were pearly white. The only thing out of place were her eyes. They were the colour of dead grass.<p>

"I am Auxo, horae of summer." Her voice was beautiful too, like waves on the shore of a beach.

"Axe-o?" asked Angeline, voice filled with delight. The axe was Angeline's second favourite weapon. Auxo, who had seemed calm before, clenched her fists and smiled tightly at Angeline, as if withholding a lot of anger.

"No, _dearest_, I am Auxo. I know that your... _breed _doesn't appreciate the day time, but at least have the decency to say my name correctly." The happy grin was wiped right off Angeline's face. "But let's let bygones be bygones, I come here in good will. She placed her hand on Angeline's chest. It glowed as bright as the sun for a short time, then faded back to normal. Auxo took her hand away and looked at Angeline expectantly.

"How did you..." Angeline patted the place where her broken rib was.

"I'm the goddess of growth. My _name_ means growth. Repairing a broken rib is like making a tree taller. I suppose, in your terms, it would be like wielding that mace of yours."  
>Angeline's face went bright red. She knew that the mace wasn't a weapon that required a lot of skill, but she was very defensive about it. Auxo ignored her and instead looked at Viv for a moment before tutting. "You should sunbathe more, boys would go crazy over you if you were a bit tanner. Aphrodite always hated the fact that Nemesis was... pretty. If you took more care at your appearance I think that a<em> lot <em>of Aphrodite's kids would get jealous."

Nathan had never seen Viv and Angeline so mad at the same person. Then Auxo looked over Nathan. He waited for her to say something about his appearance, lineage, anything, but she just inspected him from head to toe like the popular girls at his school did, then looked away without saying anything.

Somehow, that made him angrier then any stupid remark about tanning could ever do.

"Ah, I've said too much, haven't I?" Auxo put her hands to her face, after seeming to realise that the looks on the faces of the demigods was one of anger, not gratification. "My sisters always say 'Auxo, you shouldn't be so critical' but I see what can happen if you only feed something, make it bloom and grow until it-"

"What do you want with us?" asked Angeline, who had had some chance to calm down.

"What impatience! My, my! I'm here to help you on your quest, _of course_." She laughed. Even though he was angry with her, Nathan couldn't help noting that the noise sounded like some type of songbird. The fact that everything, even her laugh, was perfect, except her eyes, kind of annoyed him. "Did you really think that you were going to find my mistress Demeter by yourselves, or that no one else cared?" When they didn't reply she laughed some more. "Don't flatter yourselves." Nathan sighed inwardly. That was the third time someone had told him that since camp had started. It seemed to be in fashion.

Auxo shook her head sorrowfully. "Do you know how hard a job I've got, trying to keep everything growing without my lady? I tell you, it is a _huge_chore-"

"So, Auxo, where will we find Demeter?" drawled Viv, fingers drumming a tattoo on her ruler. Auxo looked like she was about to tell them, or tell Viv to grow some patience (like she _really_needed to be reminded), but suddenly her mouth pinched shut.

"I can't tell you." her voice was a lot quieter than before, none of her earlier confidence.

Nathan let out an exasperated sigh. "Then... why did you get hurt by the boar and tell us that we were going to need directions?"

"What is it with men and directions?" She laughed, right back into her earlier mood, looking at the two girls for support. Viv and Angeline looked right back with straight, uninterested faces. Gel raised an eyebrow. "One, I was never hurt by the boar. He startled me when he turned around and started charging, that's all. He was asking me to fix his wing. Poor dear, a sphinx had broken it. Have you ever-" The unamused look from Viv stopped her in her tracks. Auxo sighed. "Fine then. All you heroes are the same. You just want to get me out of your hair. Two, because you _are _going to need directions. Now, Demeter is..." She closed down again. Her face displayed emotions that flickered off as soon as they appeared. Nathan looked towards Viv and Angeline with a look that equated to 'What the Hades?'.

When her voice returned, it was soft and quiet again. "I cannot tell you where she is now, but I can tell you where she was last. I can give you a warning and a gift. But no more."

"Why are you being so nice to us?" asked Angeline, seeming to tune into Auxo's random personality changes.

Auxo gave her a sad smile. "I'm doing this because you are going to need my help, even though you may not want it. Besides," she looked over Nathan with that same uncaring look. "Tyche cashed in on an old favour."

Viv huffed. Nathan knew that she got annoyed whenever Tyche was brought up.

"Cool. Why don't you tell us what you're going to tell us, give us the gift and leave us alone?" suggested Viv. Auxon immediately lost her solemn look and turned back to her annoyingly confident self.

"What an attitude! You would have been a big nuisance in Athens back in the day! Probably would have been locked up in your house, and I can understand why such a husband would do so!" Viv looked purely murderous, but Auxo took no notice. "Demeter was last in Nebraska. She loves corn, you know." An almost nostalgic look passed over her face. "Yes, that is certainly where she was last. However, I bring a warning. My warning is this; vanity will transport you to where she is, but how will you get back?"

The puzzled look on the trio's faces made Auxo laugh. "I know that my words do not make sense now, but I _cannot _say more." She gave them all a stern look, as if she was trying to tell them something else. She reached into her hair and with a twist of her hand undid something that made her light, well-coiffed hair tumble down out of its restraints. In her hand was a hair thing... a barrette, if Nathan remembered correctly, with an intricate, crystal flower bud on it.

Looking over the trio, she dismissed Nathan, _again,_ ignored the rage in Viv's eyes, and placed the barrette into Angeline's hands. "Open the flower when you come across someone, or something that's a _total _workaholic." She gave Angeline a wink then stepped back, sighing with sadness. "I guess I've nearly overstayed my welcome."

Nearly? Did she really not sense the waves of hatred radiating from Viv?

"Farewell, young demigods. Remember that summer is meant to be enjoyed as a holiday. You have to have _some _fun on the quest. In Nebraska there's this lovely maze... " A foreign sounding bird suddenly chirped. "Ah, my ride's here. Look away now dearies, lest you want to be incinerated." A warm wind from the west suddenly whisked , taking the goddess' advice, hastily squeezed his eyes shut. A wall of heat, as if someone had opened up the door to a furnace hit Nathan. Then, just like that, the heat disappeared. Auxo was nowhere in sight. The world seemed colder and a whole lot smellier. Nathan hadn't noticed before, but there had been a smell of ripe apples that Auxo had brought with her.

"Man, who'd think that summer would be such an annoying... critical..." growled Viv, still fuming from Auxo's beauty advice and her comment on her attitude.

"At least we have a lead now." shrugged Nathan.

"Yeah, I saw the way you looked at her." said Viv. Before Nathan could defend himself she turned to Angeline. "What should we do with the barrette then?"

Angeline defensively put said barrette into her hair, using it to pin back her left bangs. "I'm not going to go around and throw away gifts given to me by a goddess, even if she is annoying and critical."

Nathan smacked his head as a sudden thought struck him. "Crap. I hope Auxo returns."

"Why, lover boy? Wanna go and confess your never-ending love to her?" Viv smirked.

"Not really, I'm just worried how long that flying pig is going to wait for her to show up."

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading! Please pretty please review with a cherry on top ;)<p> 


	4. Giving a Goddess Tiny Teddies and Wander

**The Abduction of the Poppy**

Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfiction by Tohkalia and Miss-Li-ding

DISCLAIMER: We live on Earth. We can write in English. We own PJO. Guess which one's a lie.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Four - Giving a Goddess Tiny Teddies and Wandering Around<span>

Viv rubbed her hands together in an attempt to keep them warm in the crisp night air. Central Park seemed to have a different mood at night time.

"So Angeline, just tell me again, why do we need to move into _the _dodgiest part of Central park at _night time,_ may I add?" asked Viv.

Angeline rolled her eyes. "One, it's not the dodgiest, just the least well lit."

"Same diff. Why?"

"Because artificial lights at nighttime give me worse headaches then at any other time. I mean," she raised her hands and looked towards the sky. "It's _night _time for Nyx's sake! It's not _supposed _to be bright!"  
>Viv held back the urge to mention to Angeline that not everyone had perfect night vision like Nyx-children.<p>

"And two?" mumbled Nathan who was quite overcome by the task of carrying all of the supplies. Viv felt sorry for him for a moment before realising that she didn't like him, at all. Then she was quite pleased that he was suffering.

"Two? Oh right, two. Um, you're with a daughter of Nyx;" she pointed to herself for effect. "as long as my mum is in a good mood no harm can come over us. Unless it's of our own doing."

"What happens if your mom is in a bad mood?" Asked Viv. Angeline stopped the group, apparently this was a good place.

"Well, you know, meteor showers, comets, shooting stars, exploding stars, that stuff happens." Angeline shrugged and tutted as Nathan started arranging their gifts.  
>"You <em>can't <em>put the food items next to the non-food items! She might accidentally eat some of the stuff!" She watched Nathan some more before pushing him out of the way and rearranging them herself. Not wanting to be caught up in her organising fury, Viv allowed her mind to wander.

They weren't too far from the area the Clazomenian boar had taken off in. Earlier they had searched the entire area for about an hour to figure out if the boar was still around, waiting to kill some mortals. They had found no sign of him, but some half-eaten apples led them to believe that Auxo had taken him with her.

"Viv, wake up, it's done." Angeline waved her hand in front of Viv's face. Viv nodded and observed the gifts.

They didn't seem very important to her, a couple of stones, around five copies of an Astronomy magazine, some chocolate chip tiny teddies **(1)**, a packet of gummi bears and two bottles of orange juice. Yep, typical things to give a goddess.

Nathan seemed to think on similar lines of Viv, for once. "Hey Gel, why are we giving your mum rocks, some magazines, bear-food and OJ?" Wait... since when was Angeline called Gel?

"One, those 'rocks' are meteorites."

Oh boy. Angeline and her rocks. This was going to take a while.

"This one," she pointed to one which was speckled, "is a H Ch-Chondrite. It's pretty common. How-however thi-this one," she pointed to the other rock which looked scratchy, like a mob of angry cats had attacked it. "Th-this one is a kam-kamacite!"

She looked at them like she expected them to be amazed. Indeed by her stuttering Viv could tell that she was very excited.

"D-Do you know how f-freaking long it t-took me to g-get those fr-freaking meteorites? I b-bought 17 different eBay stones until I-I found a l-legit H Chondrite and it t-took me a whole lot m-many m-more buys for me to getthekamacitean-andthenmyd-dadsolditandth-thenitt-tookmetwoyearst-totrackitd-downagainandyoudonot-"

"Angeline. Chill. You're talking so fast and stuttering so much that it's pretty hard for us to follow you." blurted Viv, unable to take it anymore. She instantly regretted her word choice though. Angeline looked down and stared at her shoes. Oh crap. That was her reclusive pose. Viv looked at Nathan to see if he was going to do anything. Viv was amused and annoyed with his indecisive look. So it was up to her to apologise. "I didn't mean for it-"

"I-I know." Angeline replied, wincing as she stuttered. "I'll stop going on about meteors then. Um..." Angeline rubbed her arms. "She likes seeing what mortals 'discover' about space, that's why the magazines are there. And she likes bears. I don't know why, maybe something to do with Ursa Minor having the Polaris. Jaz says that orange juice is her favourite."

Viv felt incredibly uncomfortable. It was obvious that Angeline was over-enunciating her words.

"So then." said Nathan, clapping his hands together and rubbing them somewhat maliciously. "Let's give Nyx our gifts." Angeline nodded, turning to the items in front of her and shaking like a leaf.

"My lady, powerful goddess of the night, please listen to this plea. She who rides her chariot to make the darkened sky, she who opens the gates of the Oneiroi and who guides sailors with her reign, take heed. You who the gates of Tartarus do not hold, you who oversees all at night, listen now to what I, your daughter has to say. Please accept these gifts that we give to you. In return I ask only one thing; please give me the strength to take my friends with me when I travel this night."

The trio waited a moment and nothing happened. Viv was about to go comfort Angeline when a sudden breeze whisked through the area. Angeline straightened up and bowed deeply.

"Close your eyes." She hissed at the other two. They obeyed. Just after Viv closed her eyes a presence fill the area, it felt dark and gloomy but at the same time peaceful. She detected the scent of jasmine flowers. Then the presence left as quickly as it came. Viv waited a few more seconds, until Angeline gave the all clear. The gifts had indeed vanished and in their place jasmine flowers had bloomed. Angeline seemed to be in a trance. "She also likes jasmine flowers. They are so backwards, opening only to Nyx. Hemera hates them for that." Viv walked over to her and rubbed her shoulder. Angeline had a dazed look to her, like she had just seen a movie star and gotten them to give her an autograph.

"Angeline, snap out of it." Angeline looked as if she was coming out of a trance.

"So, what did your mom say to you?" asked Nathan. Viv was secretly glad. She was curious. but asking Gel what her mother had said after telling her to snap out of her daze would have been very hypocritical indeed.

"She told me that I'll be able to shadow-travel with all of you tonight and that..." The dazed look reappeared in Angeline's eyes. "That I was doing a good job and that she was proud of me..."

Viv felt a bit jealous but then banished the feeling. Her mother hadn't talked to her, except when she had first been claimed and that had been super awkward. Stupidly Viv had been disappointed that her mother was a goddess of revenge, she had secretly hoped that her mother had control of something 'awesome', like exploding volcanoes or giant sharks which could also roam on land. But over time Viv had realised that being a Nemesis kid was awesome. Her greatest wish was to meet her mom again and to explain how stupid she had been, that she was glad that she was her daughter, that she-

"Viv, don't you space out on me too. How are we going to go to Nebraska if both of you are unresponsive?" Viv turned her blank stare into a glare as she realised that Nathan had a point. "Ah, you're back."

"Yes, Nathan's right." Angeline cracked her knuckles and looked to the shadows, hands shaking nervously. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply clenched her hands into fists. "Put your bags on and lock arms with me." Viv did as she said, pulling her bag's strap over her head so it was slung diagonally over her and tightening the strap. Then Viv locked her left arm into Angeline's right, holding her wrist with her hand to make sure that she didn't let go. After Nathan had done the same, Angeline looked at both of them, then ran into the shadows.

* * *

><p>When Nathan had heard of Angeline's power of shadow-travelling, he hadn't been too sure about it. It was hard enough for Hades' children to shadow-travel by themselves and Gel would be taking three passengers. He had convinced himself that he would help her as much as he could, but all he could remember of the trip was running into the shadows of Central Park, then walking out of a tree's shadow in an empty dirt path. It had happened so fast that there had been no chance for him to luck her along. They all stood standing in the middle of nowhere for a moment before Viv shouted "Corn!" and Angeline fainted.<p>

"Ugh I wish that shadow-travelling didn't take so much out of her." groaned Nathan, who was left holding most of Angeline's weight.

"Ah, but then you wouldn't have a chance to be so close to her wouldn't you?" asked Viv, who, at that moment decided to let go of Angeline. Nathan was at once happy for the lack of light on this road, it would have given Viv much more satisfaction to catch him blushing at her remark. Viv reached into her back pocket and pulled out her notebook. She flicked through some pages, clicked a pen and made a tick. "One awkward position with an unconscious person repaid."

"Hey, I didn't realise that dad had passed out on the couch when I went to bed."

"Well I was the one left carrying him up the stairs." Nathan rolled his eyes and hefted Angeline onto his shoulder in the fireman carry position.

"So where are we going?" he asked Viv, who shrugged. "Let's find some place to rest for a while, hopefully Angeline will wake then, and not while I'm carrying her. I do prefer life you know."

"I couldn't tell." snickered Viv. They walked in silence for a moment, Nathan kicking some stones along the path half-heartedly. Carrying Gel and her pack along with his bag was quite hard. Walking with this extra weight while trying not to fall flat on his face in darkness was also hard. "That looks like a good place." muttered Viv.

Nathan looked at where she was pointing. The moon was nearly full and his eyes had had time to adjust to the dim lighting. He could just make out some soft looking grass.

"It sure does." Nathan quickly walked over to the grass and gently laid Angeline down, taking care to not bump her head on the ground. Once she was off his back he swung his bag around and dug out his micro-fibre blanket. He unzipped the bag and took out the blanket, unfolding it from a post-it size cube to a decent sized blanket. Nathan laid it down onto the grass before picking Angeline up and moving her onto it.

All the while he did this, he could feel Viv's eyes bore into him, trying to find some ulterior motive behind his actions. Ugh, he didn't have time for this. In a spark of what he thought to be genius he sat down on the grass, leaving the remaining spot of blanket free to Viv.

Even though he could just barely make out her features Nathan somehow sensed the calculating look in her eyes. She eventually turned and sat down with a thump onto the blanket, all the while looking at Nathan. Then there was silence. Nathan didn't want to start a conversation with her but didn't want to remain seated in awkwardness. He reached into his bag and pulled out the bag of popcorn.

"Popcorn? I know we're in the middle of Nebraska but I figure that it'll fill our stomachs-"

"You're trying to put me off." she muttered under her breath, continuing to examine him. Before he could interrupt Viv started again. "You gently, gingerly lower Angeline onto the ground, then lay out a blanket for her to rest on. Then, to throw me off you don't sit next to her, which is obviously what you want to do. Then, realising that I know you try and offer me popcorn to sway my concentration. It isn't going to work." She crossed her arms over her chest, Nathan could almost see the smirk plastered onto her face.

"Has anyone ever described you as paranoid? Because you seem to be paranoid. Very paranoid. I mean, why do you always assume that I have some ulterior motive?" Nathan sighed and laid back in the grass, using his bag for a pillow. He opened up the bag of popcorn and tossed one into his mouth.

"Most people always have some ulterior motive." Viv concluded, settling down next to Nathan. Nathan ate another piece of popcorn before Viv reached over, snatched the bag from his hands and grabbed a handful of popcorn for herself. "This sure is some crazy mission." she mumbled, mostly to herself.

"You don't have any more points do you-"

"Shut up." she put a piece of popcorn in her mouth and chewed it. "I just don't like talking about Angeline when she's literally right next to me. Plus, ADHD; I can't keep on going on about your love life forever."

Nathan rolled his eyes and didn't pursue the subject any longer. Although Viv claimed it was her ADHD that made her change the subject, Nathan knew that she could easily keep on rambling about a subject, long after it had ceased to interest him. Hubris and how it was annoying was one of her favourite subjects.

"Yeah, I guess so." They faded into an uncomfortable silence. Viv yawned suddenly and turned her back to Nathan.

"I'm going to try and sleep. You can either stand watch or sleep, I don't care but if another freaking flying pig attacks us its all your fault." Nathan nodded. Eventually Viv's breath evened watching the stars for a while before slowly falling asleep.

* * *

><p>As soon as the proverbial sand-man visited Nathan he was transported away from from the cornfields to a casino. He was seated at a table across from a man wearing a business suit, albeit with a loosened tie and undone top button. The man seemed to be winning the game, craps. At least, that was what Nathan could tell by looking at the amount and colour of his chips. His eyes and hair reminded Nathan of chocolate, and indeed his hungry smile was magnetic, bringing by-standers around to watch him, amusement lighting up their eyes. Two women, nearly identical, sat on either side of him. Both had similar features, black hair, olive skin, except for their eye colour. The one who sat on his left had green eyes whilst the one on his right had light hazel, nearly amber eyes.<p>

Nathan saw them for a moment as they truly were through the Mist; the one on his left held a ball on her outstretched palm whilst the other held scales. Tyche and Nemesis.

"How are you so good at this game, Thomas?" asked Nemesis, smile turning into the same smirk Nathan had seen Viv make a hundred times. So it _was_ hereditary.

"It's skill baby, pure skill. The skill of being extremely lucky." he slurred his way through talking, then picked up a cocktail glass next to her. He drank it in one gulp and turned his attentions to Tyche. He burped in her face, which made Nathan want to pommel him. Lazily the man reached out a hand towards Tyche's hair and twisted a lock around his finger. "What number should I pick next, baby?" Tyche's eyes seemed to grow cold. Then a similar smirk to that of Nemesis' passed over her face.  
>"Four, I have a feeling that it'll be a big win." The man nodded and turned to the barman.<p>

"You heard the lady, put everything on four!" He quickly agreed. Tyche and Nemesis stole a glance at each other, one Nathan could almost call sadistic.

Thomas rolled the dice onto the table. A four and a six. The whole table heaved a sigh, sympathetically patted the man on the back then drifted over to other tables to watch others bet their fortunes away. Thomas sat there with a shocked face as he watched his 'hard earned' cash swept away.

"Oh my dear, I am so sorry that you lost." exclaimed Tyche, rising a hand to her face. Nathan could detect a hidden joy radiating from her though, he guessed that her hand was to hide a grin. Even though in Nathan did feel sorry for the man, he too felt thrilled. It was funny, the way he thought that he was going to win. Nemesis openly smirked.

"I suppose, dear sister that it is time for us to go." Nemesis got to her feet. Thomas grabbed her wrist and turned to her with pleading eyes.

"No, you can't leave me! I can still win money! I'm lucky!" Nemesis ripped her wrist out of his grasp and looked at him, an all too familiar look of indignation on her face.

Tyche got to her feet and stood next to Nemesis, eyes murderous. "If you _were_ lucky, I think your luck just ran out." Simultaneously the goddess' linked arms and walked away from the man. Nathan rose out of his chair and followed them. Once out of ear shot they started giggling to each other like two school girls.

Tyche managed to gain control of her laughter some amount to talk. "Mortals are morons. They do not realise how easy it is for them to fall." Then something very strange happened. Still talking to her sister, she somehow looked in Nathan's direction, and though it was obvious that she was saying something completely different to Nemesis, Nathan clearly heard Tyche's voice. "Even you can fall, my son."

* * *

><p>Viv was abruptly awakened by a kick to her backside. She immediately tensed and inched her hand to her sword, in case it was an attacker. Feeling the ruler morph into a sword, she suddenly leaped up and brandished her rapier.<p>

There was no-one around. Realising that it wasn't even dawn yet, Viv groaned and searched for the one who woke her up. Angeline was still out cold on the blanket Nathan had put her on, and Nathan...Ah ha. Idiot boy was kicking his legs around. Hmph. Viv was about to kick _him_ awake, when he rolled over onto his front.

"Donwannagotoschool..." he mumbled into the ground. "Ack!" Nathan sat up, spat out a small mouthful of dirt and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Yuck." Only then did he notice Viv glaring at him. "What did I do now?" he sighed.

Viv held up two fingers like a finger gun. "You kicked me awake." she stated coldly.

"So you're going to shoot me with a finger gun. Good ide- SHIT!"

Viv had leaned over and slapped him - with two fingers. "Debt repaid. And I didn't even have to write it in my Notebook of Debts." she smiled, suddenly a lot more content.

Nathan was still rubbing his cheek. "You know, that hurts. A lot. How did you..."

"Simple elementary science. Less surface area, more ouchies."

"I still hate you. And I suck at science. Trust you to have turned science into a torture technique..." he grumbled.

Viv smirked. "I'll take that as a compliment." She started clearing their campsite. Maybe if she packed it all up before Nathan realised...

"Hey, why are you- Oh." Nathan hastily folded a few blankets and shoved them in his pack. "See, look, I helped."

Damn. Oh well. Maybe next time. "What are we going to do with Angeline?" Viv said, looking at Nathan closely.

Nathan glanced at Angeline with a look that made Viv want to throw up. Concern. "I guess I'll have to carry her."

"Aw, poor you." Viv said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Shut up, she'll put my back out."

"Oh you poor, _poor _thing."

* * *

><p>Walking around on the abandoned country corn fields with no idea where one was going was not Viv's idea of a good time. Or of an exciting, dangerous mission. Carrying three bags was also not her idea of fun. In fact it was quite taxing. She had her bag over one shoulder and Angeline's over the other. Nathan's was strapped to her back. All in all, it made her feel very heavy. Stupid Nathan and his stupid plans. He had made a deal with her; if she carried the bags this time he would be her servant for a day at school. It had sounded good. She had accepted and now had to carry all three of the demigods' bags whilst Nathan was left carrying Angeline across his shoulders in the fireman's carry position. But now she wasn't really liking the whole carrying bags thing. When he was her slave, she would just put everything in her locker into her bag. That would make him suffer.<p>

There was corn all around them at about thigh height. Although it appeared slightly yellow-tinged, it was obvious that the corn, until recently, used to be green and healthy.

The sun rising slowly over the horizon didn't do much to lighten Viv's mood, though it did help her see better. The view wasn't that great though. After marvelling at the multitude of corn that surrounded her for the first few minutes she quickly became used to the sight and resolutely marched along. As the sun rose higher, Viv started to sweat. Damn the freaking north-eastern states and their freaking boiling days.

"Hey Viv, it's summer time right?" said Captain Obvious. Why did everything need to be confirmed with him?

"No, really? I couldn't tell." she drawled, turning back to look at Nathan. He seemed to be dreading the onset of a nice, clear day.

"Yeah, yeah I know, I'm an idiot for asking. But, just for confirmation, it's not harvest time right?"

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!"

"Shut up. So then _smart ass_, why does that field over their look like it's living in Thanksgiving time?" Oh crap. His pestering did have some reason. Viv reached into her back pocket, clicked a pen and quickly scribbled down; _'Nathan; due annoying questions meant to make one look like an ass.'_.

"I can't believe that you actually made a note about-"

"Shut up, Nathaniel." Viv grumbled before shoving her notebook back into its pocket. Angrily, she looked at the offending field.

Indeed it did look like it was during the aptly named 'Thanksgiving time'. It was over shoulder height, dried out and full of ears or corn just waiting to be picked. There seemed to be a sign hanging above a driveway and a road-side stand.

"Why don't we check it out?" shrugged Viv. Nathan gave her a doubtful look. "Come on, Demeter was a harvest goddess, perhaps she liked continually harvesting. I don't know. But its worth a shot. Auxo told us she was last seen in Nebraska."

"Dude, Nebraska is huge." Viv glared at Nathan.

"No harm in looking around at the weird places then, huh?" Viv made for the strange field, leaving Nathan to race after her.

It was a weirdly set up corn field. In the booth sat a young boy, around six or seven years old, absent-mindedly playing a game of cards. A wide-brimmed hat covered his face from the sun. He wore a rather fancy shirt and formal looking trousers. His feet, kicked up on another chair, were wearing converse sneakers. The boy paid her no attention, Viv looked up at the sign that hung above his head. Ugh, _someone _had horrible handwriting. All she could tell that it was probably a pun, the letters looked very similar-

"It says 'Maize Maze'. Pretty catchy if I say so myself." said the boy, not looking up from under his hat. He had a quite posh accent for a little boy in Nebraska.

"Yeah, catchy... sure." mumbled Viv. "Hey can I put these bags here? They're a bit heavy." The boy shrugged.

"Go ahead, I'll try and keep an eye on them." As Nathan came up huffing the boy shrugged again. "Just put her with the bags, I'll make sure she's safe." Viv raised an eyebrow as the boy spoke. He sounded almost older there... He promptly ruined the moment by taking out a stick of gum and popping it into his mouth, blowing a bubble which snapped and plastered icky stuff all over the lower half of his face. Nathan gently put Angeline onto the ground, giving her his bag for a pillow. Viv and Nathan stood in an awkward silence as the boy shuffled the deck of cards some more and blew more bubbles which exploded onto his face. "You know what, I think that while you wait for your friend to wake up, there would be no better thing to do than to go into the Maize Maze." The two adopted siblings shared a look.

"Auxo did tell us that there was a fun maze..." shrugged Nathan. Viv glared at him.

"Auxo also told me to sunbathe and that I would be better locked up in a house. Not a word, Nathan." Before Nathan could make an annoying remark the boy stood up from his chair.

"Friends of Auxo? Then it's settled!" boomed the boy. "It's free for friends of Auxo." With a wave of his hand the corn suddenly parted to reveal a path. "Go on, have some fun."

* * *

><p><strong>(1)<strong> Tiny Teddies are similar to Teddy Grahams. They are small, bear-shaped biscuits.


	5. Fighting Tarzan and a Side Quest

**The Abduction of the Poppy**

Percy Jackson and the Olympians fanfiction by Tohkalia and Miss-Li-ding

DISCLAIMER: I remember owning PJO. Then I woke up.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter Five - Fighting Tarzan and a Side Quest<span>

Whilst walking through the maze, Nathan wished dearly that he was in some other place. Any time where he was forced to be contained with Viv in a small space was nauseating ever since that one fateful round of spin the bottle. They had both been 11 at the time, and had been forced into a closet together for the whole night because they wouldn't kiss. From then on, he had found it hard to be close to her in any sort of confined space.

Viv cast a glance at him. "So... letting Angeline use your bag for a pillow-"

"Shut up Viv, I was just being nice." he grumbled, rubbing his arms uncomfortably. "Stop reading into every little thing."

She ignored his request. "And since when is her name Gel?"

Nathan mentally rolled his eyes. "That's the only nickname she'll let me call her."

Viv arched an eyebrow then smirked. "Oh, is that so?_ I've_never heard you call her Gel before."

"I called her Gel most of last year." he explained, then shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Yeah right, whatever... What the Hades? Another dead end? You're supposed to be leading us _out_of this maze A.S.A.P."

Nathan shrugged. "I don't want to waste my luck on a stupid maze. I'd rather save it for things... like not choosing the short straw for cleaning out the pegasi stables."

"That doesn't work anyway, I neutralise it." He knew it! _She _had been the reason he had been chosen for cleaning out the stables with the same chances as everyone else.

He shrugged again. "Touche."

For a while they walked silently in the maze. Every time they ran into a dead end Viv would glare at him, backtrack then choose the other fork. Nathan let her lead. He really couldn't be bothered.

Gradually Nathan became aware of a low breathing noise. At first he thought it was just in his head, but then Viv started to act like she was hearing something too. Nathan cast a glance at her. She nodded and they both sped up together. The noise got louder. Hope jumped in Nathan's chest...perhaps this was Demeter sleeping just ahead! Just as he thought the noise couldn't get any louder, it did. A sudden doubt struck his thoughts but he ignored it. They turned a corner.

Instead of a beautiful harvest goddess snoozing in the sun, around the corner was a mass of dark skin and anger.

The minotaur faced them. It snorted at the two demigods, its powerful body rippling as it flexed its muscles. Furry from the waist up the only thing that it wore was a pair of love-heart boxers.

"What is this, a rip-off of Daedalus' labyrinth?" asked Viv, activating her sword in a flash. Nathan activated his weapon. It lengthened and turned into a spear. What was with this weapon? Twenty sides to the shape and it was basically knife, sword or spear. There was probably some weird parental supervision lock on it. That sounded like something a mortal parent would do. Damn. Now he was going to have to spend time attempting to unlock it. He hated wasting time.

The minotaur raised its head and bellowed into the air, striking its chest like Tarzan. Another rip-off? What would be next, a song montage full of talking animals? A herd of stampeding wildebeest?

"So Tarzan," Viv seemed to be tuned into his wavelength, for once. "I suppose you want to eat us or something like that, wasn't that your old job in the actual labyrinth?" questioned Viv, sword in hand. The minotaur (forever to be called Tarzan in Nathan's mind) narrowed his eyes and snorted. Nathan watched with a sense of dread as it reached down and picked up its axe. Shaped like an omega, it looked worse for wear, chipped and scratched. It also looked sharp. Very sharp.

Tarzan approached them, swinging its axe around and bellowing maliciously. Nathan was suddenly glad that he had been Gel's target practice when she had been deciding on her weapons. How she, being smaller than Nathan, could swing around maces and axes with a great degree of power was still a mystery to him.  
>Angeline was almost as good at the axe as she was the mace, so in order to remain alive Nathan had quickly learned how to dodge. Unfortunately for Viv, she had only ascended to the level of sparring-buddy with Gel after she had taken up the mace.<p>

The only bad thing was that Nathan had no shield. And he had only been brave enough to face Axe-Gel with a shield. Tarzan swung his axe at them horizontally. Nathan jumped back out of its sweep just in time, he felt the air part against the fabric of his T-shirt. Viv just kept jumping back whilst facing the beast, 'disengaging', as she called it with her fancy fencing terms.

"So, the mighty minotaur is reduced to haunting a corn maze in the middle of nowhere? Whatever happened to you being a terror of Minos, of the labyrinth? Guess you were fired," taunted Nathan, trying to stall the half-man, half-bull. Tarzan was not amused. He snorted, dragged his left hind hoof against the ground and advanced towards the demigods with a roar.

"Nathan, what are you doing? We're trying _not _to be killed by the raging man-beast." Viv and Nathan jumped back at another swing. "With my experience, teasing isn't the best way to go." She jumped backwards again as the minotaur swung at her again.

"Do you have a better idea?" he shouted, then stepped back as another swing from the axe came close to him. It tore his T-shirt, making more adrenaline rush through his body. Suddenly something nudged his back. Crap! He had hit the edge of the maze! Tarzan, with blood-lust clear in its eyes, raised his axe and bellowed triumphantly. Nathan realised what the minotaur was about to do: a devastating overhead cut. Ok, a minotaur in front of him, nowhere to go behind him-

"Nathan, what in Hades are you doing? We're in corn!"

Oh... right.

Nathan pushed back against the corn and suddenly fell back into the plants, scrambling backwards just in time as the axe head landed between his knees. With a small thank-you to his mother he clambered to his feet then began to push through the corn, not wanting to leave Viv by herself with a pissed off minotaur.

Every step he took felt like he was moving through sticky, thigh deep mud. He strained and moved through the stalks with excruciating difficulty until he suddenly popped back out into the maze. He hefted his spear and swung it side to side, ready to face Tarzan. It took him a few moments to realise that the minotaur wasn't around and he couldn't see any sign of it. Nor could he see any signs of Viv.

"Viv!" He shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. No reply. He shouted for her again. Again, nothing. His heart beat faster. Oh crap, what if something happened to her? She would torment him forever in Hades if he left her to die. He sent a prayer to his mother that she was alright and was still alive and kicking. With a curse he closed his eyes and spun in circles before running off, lucking his way towards where Viv was. He ran blind for quite a few minutes, then 'Thunk'!  
>Nathan fell backwards and landed roughly on his butt, dropping his spear in the process. He opened his eyes to find Viv mirroring his position.<p>

"Viv!" He exclaimed, a grin on his face. She was still alive! Viv scowled at him, obviously not as happy. Without replying she scooted forward and raised her leg before whacking her heel onto his knee. It was needless to say that it hurt. Nathan rolled onto his back and grabbed his knee.

"BY THE IMMORTAL GODS THAT HURTS LIKE BEING DRAGGED TO HADES BY A HARPY!" screamed Nathan in Ancient Greek, rolling around as tears prickled the corners of his eyes.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LEFT ME LIKE THAT!" shouted Viv. She had gotten to her feet and was standing over Nathan, an ominuous shadow. "Where have you been for the past half-hour?"

Nathan had recovered enough to overcome enough of the pain to stop swearing in Ancient Greek and reply to Viv's statement.  
>"Half-hour? I went... five minutes most."<p>

Viv snorted. Nathan could see now that she was holding her right arm gingerly. Blood dripped from her fingers.

"Stupid freaking magic." he grumbled under his breath. Viv rolled her eyes as he hugged his knee some more.

"Get up, you wuss. I've had to endure a similar amount of pain for the last half-hour while fighting a freaking minotaur." She gave him a look of disdain as he continued to sit on the ground. "Man up, Nathan, we've got to finish him off."

Viv grabbed Nathan by the back of his neck and proceeded to tear his head from his body. He resisted her pulling until he thought he heard something crack. Not eager for death at the hands of his sister, he stood up quickly. She released him from her grip and turned back the way she had come. Nathan picked up his spear, used it as a makeshift cane, then hobbled after her, practically hopping because of his injured knee.

"Why haven't you finished him off?" he asked. Viv was practically unstoppable when she was on a roll; she could have taken care of anything.

Viv glared at Nathan. "Tarzan's a freaking minotaur with an axe. I was focused more on staying alive as opposed to killing the beast. Plus, you have the only semi-long-range weapon. If I get too close to him, he just uses his hand-hooves."

"Why didn't he follow you?"

"He's currently trying to remove his axe from a handy rock." She smirked. Viv sounded her usual tough stuff but Nathan could tell that she was exhausted. She wasn't breathing deeply, as she always stressed him to do. Her eyes were sunken. A roar came from ahead. It sounded close. Viv flinched from the sound, Nathan watched with empathy as fear flickered over her features before they resumed their normal, uncaring appearance.

"C-come on now Nate." She mumbled, activating her sword and holding it in her uninjured left hand. Nathan shrugged when he saw her do it. She wasn't as good with her left-hand, far from it, but recently she had began to practise with it. Apparently right-handers sucked against left-handers in fencing. Viv, being Viv, liked being able to surprise people with her abilities as well as pwn them.

Viv took a deep breath and moved herself into the 'en guarde' position. Nathan put weight on his sore knee, adjusted to the pain then took away his spear as a support and brandished it as a weapon.

The ground trembled underfoot, becoming bigger with each footstep Tarzan made. Then, suddenly, the beast was in front of them.

The minotaur was bleeding badly from both legs and the left side of his face boasted a deep scar, forcing it to squint at them with one, good eye. Nathan briefly wondered how long Viv had had to fight with her wounded arm. Then the minotaur charged at them.

Tarzan ran straight to Viv, hatred visible in its eye and swung a side cut at her. Instead of dodging backwards as Nathan did she darted forward. She dodged under the axe before trying to run her blade through he minotaur by a lunge. The minotaur, expecting this move jumped backwards just enough to be out of range of her range.  
>Viv tsked before deactivating her blade and rolling between the minotaur's legs. Nathan gaped in wonder. This exchange took less then half a minute. She was fighting him like a pro-<p>

"Don't just stand there Nathan fight the bloody thing!" Nathan closed his mouth and moved into a more offensive position. Tarzan, seeming to notice Nathan rushed towards him. Nathan copied Viv's action and ran towards the monster as it raised its blade for an upper-hand-cut. He wasn't fast enough to dodge under the blade. Nathan paused for a moment, then jumped to the side as the blade fell into the hard ground where he had been only moments before.  
>Tarzan yanked at the handle of the axe. It refused to move. Taking this small moment of good luck, Nathan shifted his grip on the spear and sprinted towards Tarzan. Out of the corner of his eye Nathan could see Viv doing likewise.<p>

The siblings reached the minotaur at the same time. Just as the minotaur pried its axe from the ground they stabbed the monster through its upper torso. It felt like pushing a knife through cold butter; there was some resistance, but not a great deal.

The minotaur roared in fury, clutching at its chest before dissipating into a fine, shimmering dust. All that was left was the minotaur's axe, which abruptly fell over on its side.

All of the adrenaline rushed out of Nathan's system. His hurt knee started to throb, uncomfortable from the withdrawal of the pain-reducing hormone. He focused on breathing for a few seconds, then straightened himself up and leaned against his spear. Viv recovered much faster, she walked over to the axe, nursing her wounded arm and kicked it half-heartedly. She was silent for a few moments. In those moments Nathan got a vibe of what she was going to say-

"So... Auxo says there's a 'fun' maze eh? Just going to go into it and battle the minotaur... for fun?"

"Hey!" protested Nathan. "I didn't know there was going to be a monster waiting to eat us in it!" He hobbled over to the axe and picked it up with a grunt. In his hand it changed to a handily compact screwdriver. The tip was engraved with an omega. The handle was loose around the blade and the metal of the blade was rusted, chipped and scratched. In short, it looked pretty crappy.

Nathan offered it to Viv. After eyeing him for a few seconds she snatched it from his hands. She switched her sword to its ruler form before angrily shoving both items into her pocket.

"I'm going to eat your freaking ambrosia." she smiled, a hint of a smirk in it. Nathan shrugged and deactivated his spear, spinning the keychain around his finger before putting it into his shorts' pocket.

"Come on then, let's see if Angeline has woken up."

* * *

><p>Viv never wanted to ever see another minotaur ever again; for that matter, she didn't want to see that stupid Tarzan movie again either. She would burn all pages that had a picture of a minotaur in it and all who mentioned or made her watch Tarzan would be punished.<p>

Sure, she had only had to fight the minotaur half an hour, a short time in the long run, but it had been a long half-hour. Viv glanced nervously at Nathan. It had been annoying how much she had relied on him, on others. When he had gone she had found herself unprepared to fight the monster. She shuddered as she remembered those first few minutes, waiting for Nathan to pop out of the corn and help her. The moment she realised that she was on her own had been the moment the minotaur had sliced her arm with its still wickedly sharp blade, relatively early in the fight.

A voice interrupted her thoughts. "I'm sorry." mumbled Nathan. Really, was it below him to allow silence for contemplation?

"If you were sorry you'd leave me in peace." she huffed, walking faster even though she was exhausted. "We'd better be heading the right way."

"I'm lucking you at every fork." he replied. Ah, so that's why she had been feeling sick every time she had to make a decision. "How are you... I mean, fighting the minotaur must have been hard for half an hour and while wounded-"

"Don't remind me Nathaniel." she snapped. "You should count yourself lucky that I'm putting your disappearance down to magic."

"You bet I do. I just worry about you... you are _technically _my little sister." Oh no. He did not just call her his_ little _sister.

"I believe I am the elder in our weird version of a family. You traded your birthday date for mine because you wanted to have the later birthday party _if _I remember correctly." Nathan's face turned red.

"Yeah but I did say technically-"

"Doesn't matter, I am officially older than you on the records. I don't care if you were born first. I get the right to call you 'little' whilst you must call me 'older'."

The birthday swap was just another oddity. The fact that they were two demigod children with different godly parents while having the same mortal parent was the more apparent one. Both Viv and Nathan had realised this some time ago when they were young. In turn, they had asked their father. Both siblings would forever remember the look on their father's face during 'The Talk'... which didn't answer their question of how he managed to knock up two goddesses, one after another, judging by the 9 month span between their birthdays. Needless to say, it became a semi-taboo topic in their household.

Nathan was too slow to reply to Viv's statement. As he walked down the path, Angeline appeared ahead.

"Nathan! Viv!" She ran towards them, a happy smile plastered across her face. She looked like she was going to hug Viv (even though Gel's hatred for unwanted physical contact had been made clear on many occasions) when she slowed down, raising a hand to her mouth. "Viv, your arm-"

"Minor injury." she shrugged. But damn did it sting. "You can still hug hephalump over there though, he's only got a sore knee." Ah... an interesting reaction from Angeline. She looked away from Nathan and snorted.

"Yeah, 'cause I totally want to hug him, all sweaty and stuff." Viv deduced that Angeline was in the 'denial' stage. Nathan sighed in acceptance.

"Oh right, before I forget; the little boy wants to know if you've had fun." The little bastard! "We've got to go see him, otherwise he said something about stealing our bags." Angeline turned around and started to lead the way. Nathan and Viv followed behind.

"What was that Viv? Why'd you tell her to hug me?" hissed Nathan. Viv smirked. She had been waiting for him to say something.

"I thought she'd want to hug you. After all, she was your first friend at Camp Half-Blood. I mean, she is one of your closest friends, maybe something more?" Viv did enjoy watching Nathan's blush-fest.

"Shut up. I knew you had ulterior motives." he grumbled under his breath.

"Come on guys, we're almost there!" called Angeline.

"We're coming!" replied Viv who walked faster, eager to eat Nathan's ambrosia.

* * *

><p>The boy was still at his stall, calmly playing solitaire with himself.<p>

His trivial activity really did piss Viv off. He cut her off before she had a chance to berate him.

"So did you two have fun? Looks like it from your wounds. Couples these days are so energetic and violent-"

"WE ARE NOT A COUPLE!" both Viv and Nathan shouted in unison. The boy, eyes still shaded under his cap paused his game for a moment.

"Oh that's right. Sorry about that. You would _not_believe how many times I've had to say that. Lead arrows of indifference for Vivian and Nathan Archer; special request from the parents. They aren't one for incest..." Viv slammed the minotaur's axe in screwdriver form down on the boy's card game.

"We had fun all right. Sorry that your little monster didn't eat us in there. He shouldn't be needing a feed for a while." she snarled, expecting a surprised reaction from the kid. The boy was silent and still. He paused for a second then placed his cards onto the table. His whole body started to shake. For a second Viv felt a flutter of sympathy, maybe she had been too harsh; he seemed to be crying.

Then he began to chuckle louder.

"Oh, now _that _creature is one of my favourite crack pairings. Poseidon always has the best ideas-" Viv couldn't take it any more.

"Who do you think you are?" asked Viv, very pissed off. She did not fight a minotaur just so a little boy could laugh about it.

"You can't tell?" The boy stood up from his chair and took off his hat. Viv reluctantly noted that he looked really cute, the same way a puppy did; dark brown hair, a button nose and big, kaleidoscope eyes. Wings sprouted out of his back with a flutter. They were out of proportion, small and delicate. They were purely for decoration, there was no way they could support him.

"I am Eros, personification of love. Known by the Romans as Cupid, but seeing as you are Greeks, call me Eros." The demigods were silent for a while. Viv wasn't sure how to respond then, a memory clicked in her brain.

"You caused Helen to fall in love with that snobbish shepherd!" she pointed a finger at the god.

He shrugged. "Aphrodite made me, and he was a prince-" he replied in a bratty voice.

"She was just out to smite Nemesis for having a daughter prettier than her own!"

"Hey, its not my fault-" he pouted and tried to give her puppy dog eyes. It didn't work.

"She was my mother's first born-"

"Shut up Viv! Honestly, hold your tongue! You don't need to hold every grudge ever made by your mother or by someone you know." Nathan stepped between her and the stall. Viv huffed angrily and looked away. Stupid Nathan making stupid sense. The need for revenge inside of her died down. She glared at Nathan. The one thing she hated with absolute fury (well, one of the things she hated with absolute fury) was when he neutralised her vengeance. Eros rolled his eyes and ruffled his feathers before making his wings disappear.

"I will ignore meany-girl and her mean words. You are looking for Demeter right?" Nathan nodded hastily. Viv ignored the boy, stepping away from the stall. "Well, I'll tell you a secret if you gimme something in return." Eros replied in a sweet voice to Nathan before turning to Viv and sticking out his tongue.

"What do you want us to do?" asked Angeline, stepping forward so she could stand next to Viv.

Eros pouted and crossed his arms. "Mommy took away my bow and arrows. 'Cause they're my source of power, I'm stuck in this form. Psyche, for some reason, doesn't like me in this form." Right... This kid was married. Hard to remember when he acted like his mother hadn't let him buy a new toy from the mall.

"So what are we supposed to do?" asked Viv, reaching down and picking up Nathan's bag where it lay on the ground. Her arm had started to hurt again now that she wasn't focused entirely on killing the brat.

"So you're accepting?" asked Eros, beaming as brightly as the sun. Viv shrugged then searched through Nathan's bag, grabbing his bag of ambrosia. She took out a square and put it into her mouth. Yum... home-made Russian fudge flavour. "Well, you'll need to go to Aphrodite's penthouse, get past her security systems, steal my bow and arrow then get back here."

"Why can't _you _get it?" grumbled Viv, breaking another ambrosia square in half before putting it into her mouth. Ah... that hit the spot. The cut on her arm started to tingle as it healed. Hopefully that would be enough ambrosia to heal it. No need to burn up now, was there?

"She'd double the time. I can't spend an _extra _two days without my bow and arrow!" Wait a second. His punishment... was two days without his symbols? Viv cast a look at Angeline and at Nathan. They shared her look of indignation. For mortals and demigods, two days could be a comparatively long time, but for one of the millennia-old gods? Viv zipped up the ambrosia and put it back into Nathan's bag. She unceremoniously dumped it onto the ground. The demigods stayed quiet for a moment.

Nathan threw his hands up. "What the Hades. We'll do it." Angeline and Viv glared daggers at him. "I mean, he'll give us information right? Plus, it's always good to get in favour with someone." Ah... Viv could see his ulterior motives.

"This wouldn't happen to be because he is the personification of _something_in particular?" hissed Viv, arching her eyebrow.

"Nope. I just like cashing in on favours. As do you, except with revenge. Don't think I didn't notice you trying to pack up this morning without my help."

Eros butted back into the conversation, eager to be the center of attention. "As you have accepted I'll send you to her penthouse." He reached into his pants' pocket and pulled out a key card. Catching Viv off guard, he gave it to her although she _had_ just been verbally abusing him before. "That's the key card. Please don't lose it or steal it. Aphrodite will kill me if I lose that card or gave it away to some demigods." Viv shrugged but before she had a chance to put it in her pocket, Eros spoke again, taking her attention. "All right, three to the Century Handelton it is!" He eyed them all for a moment. "And maybe a special as well..." Before anyone could ask what he meant, his body started to glow. Viv closed her eyes as a smell of roses and chocolate grew stronger until it was suddenly cut off by the smell of car gas.

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading! We have more chapters than reviews which makes us sad, so please review!<p> 


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